Karma Lochrie’s Nowhere in the Middle Ages is available for review. If you are interested in reviewing this book (as before, you’ll receive a free copy for a mere 500-1000 word review), or another book, please email our Reviews Editor, Paul, at Reviews@hortulus-journal.com. Thank you, the Hortulus team.

Nicole Nolan Sidhu’s Indecent Exposure: gender, politics, and obscene comedy in Middle English Literature is available for review. If you are interested in reviewing this book (and receiving a free copy for a mere 500-1000 word review), or another book, please email our Reviews Editor, Paul, at Reviews@hortulus-journal.com. Thank you, the Hortulus team.

Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies is a refereed, peer-reviewed, and born-digital journal devoted to the culture, literature, history, and society of the medieval past. Published semi-annually, the journal collects exceptional examples of work by graduate students on a number of themes, disciplines, subjects, and periods of medieval studies. We also welcome book reviews of monographs published or re-released in the past five years that are of interest to medievalists. For the Fall issue we are highly interested in reviews of books which fall under the current special topic.

The concept of gendered spaces—areas in which particular genders and types of gender expression are considered welcome or appropriate while other gender types are unwelcome or inappropriate—is a key element in the study of human geography. Gendering spaces is one way in which social systems maintain the organization of gender, and can preserve and dictate the accepted norms of gendered behavior, as well as relationships and hierarchies between men and women. Studying gendered spaces—environments, landscapes, and other places that have been designated specifically for “men” or for “women,” as well as the “public-private” divide often defined with men in public and women in private spaces, for example—can provide us with important knowledge of the ways in which the spaces we inhabit reinforce our cultural positions from a gendered perspective; for instance, how such spaces serve to segregate or to unify, to reinforce or subvert traditional forms of masculinity and femininity. This understanding, in turn, can shed light on existing power structures and the conflicts and issues that arise between men and women in a given culture.

For our Fall 2016 themed issue we invite proposals that explore the subject of gendered spaces from a medieval vantage point, considering ways in which medieval society powerfully shaped and sought to control ideas of masculinity and femininity through the public and private spaces that were designated for men and women and how those spaces were used. We hope to attract articles offering comparative and multidisciplinary perspectives, and welcome contributions from the fields of history, art history, literary scholarship, archeology, anthropology, or any other discipline that will contribute to our thinking about gender in the medieval period. Potential topics for papers include the role of gender in medieval households, religious institutions, outdoors activities, (symbolic) landscapes, law, architecture, medicine, childcare, educational institutions, and literary spaces.

Contributions should be in English and roughly 6,000–12,000 words, including all documentation and citational apparatus; book reviews are typically between 500-1,000 words but cannot exceed 2,000. All notes must be endnotes, and a bibliography must be included; submission guidelines can be found here. Contributions may be submitted to hortulus@hortulus-journal.com and are due 14 October 2016. If you are interested in submitting a paper but feel you would need additional time, please send a query email and details about an expected time-scale for your submission. Queries about submissions or the journal more generally can also be sent to this address.

After careful review of the excellent applications we received, we are pleased to welcome Gwendolyne Knight Keimpema as our new Junior Editor. She will start working in this capacity for the Fall issue, with Nadine Kuipers becoming Senior Editor as Melissa Ridley Elmes steps down from the position after two years of commitment to Hortulus.

Gwendolyne holds a M.Sc in Information and Library Studies from the Robert Gordon University, a MA degree in Medieval Studies from Stockholm University, as well as a MA in Archeology from Aberdeen University. She is currently writing her dissertation on the social implications of shapeshifting imagery in early medieval Europe for her PhD project at Stockholm University. Gwendolyne’s multidisciplinary background has allowed her to work both as as an assistant editor for Hortulus for our Fall 2015 issue and copyeditor for the popular science publication Au Magazine at the University of Aberdeen. We look forward to the new ideas and perspectives she will bring to Hortulus.

The Hortulus team would like to express their gratitude to Melissa Ridley Elmes, for her dedication as an editor, her guidance and direction, and her willingness to explore new avenues of digital publishing. We congratulate Melissa with her new appointment as Assistant Professor of English and Medieval Literature at Lindenwood University and wish her all the best for her future pursuits.

We are accepting applications at this time for the Hortulus co-editor position.This is a two-year appointment lasting from 2016-2018; the first year is spent in a junior editorial, training capacity, while the second year comprises senior editorial duties. The deadline for applications is July 1.

Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies is a refereed, peer-reviewed, and born-digital journal devoted to the culture, literature, history, and society of the medieval past. Published semi-annually, the journal collects exceptional examples of work by graduate students on a number of themes, disciplines, subjects, and periods of medieval studies. We also welcome book reviews of monographs published or re-released in the past five years that are of interest to medievalists. For the spring issue we are highly interested in reviews of books which fall under the current special topic.

Our upcoming issue will be published in the spring of 2016, and is an open issue with no theme. We particularly encourage the submission of proposals that take a strongly theoretical and/or interdisciplinary approach, and that examine new and previously unconsidered aspects of these subjects within medieval studies. Articles may be from any discipline: history, art history, archaeology, literature, linguistics, music, theology, etc. Work from every interpretive angle is encouraged. Most importantly, we seek engaging, original work that contributes to our collective understanding of the medieval era.

Contributions should be in English and roughly 6,000 – 12,000 words, including all documentation and citational apparatus; book reviews are typically between 500-1,000 words but cannot exceed 2,000. All notes must be endnotes, and a bibliography must be included; submission guidelines can be found here. Contributions may be submitted to hortulus@hortulus-journal.com and are due February 15, 2016. If you are interested in submitting a paper but feel you would need additional time, please send a query email and details about an expected time-scale for your submission. Queries about submissions or the journal more generally can also be sent to this address.

Job Purpose

Assistant editors will help in the editing and proofreading of the articles and reviews accepted by the journal. Assistants may also be asked to take on additional projects such as drafting and disseminating calls for papers, PR, and correspondence; opportunities will be given to assistant editors who wish to gain more experience with HTML coding should they be interested. Assistants will work closely with both the Junior and Senior Editors but will have limited contact with one another. There will be four assistant editor positions open—two for the Spring 2016 open issue and two for the themed issue, “Gender and the Feast,” in the Autumn of 2016. The posts will be roughly 5 months in duration, with the majority of the workload taking place in the 3 months prior to the issue’s publication. Applicants must maintain their position as a graduate student (US)/post-graduate researcher (UK) during the entire length of the position and MUST NOT graduate during this period. If you have already received your doctorate degree or WILL receive your doctorate degree during this term you will be ineligible for the position. An assistant editorship will provide a chance to gain some experience working for Hortulus and if you are interested in becoming a Hortulus Editor in the future, taking on an assistant position would serve you well with respect to experience.

Main Duties & Responsibilities

1. To engage in detailed editing of content published by the journal including but not limited to organization, comprehension, grammar, style, and quality assurance.

2. To accomplish assigned work in a timely and efficient manner

3. To be willing to learn new skills required by the position both generally and specifically related to programs and applications.

Knowledge, Qualifications, Skills, and Experience

Essential

Ability to edit prose for content, organization, and detailed areas such as grammar and punctuation

Organizational skills

IT literacy

Communicative

Able to adhere to strict editorial schedule

Desirable

Familiarity with basic HTML

Rate of Pay

All positions at Hortulus are un-paid voluntary positions and provide an opportunity for MA/PhD students to get more involved in online academic publishing.

We are excited to announce that Hortulus is hosting its first-ever social media event: #AskaDHMedievalist!

Are you a medievalist who is interested in using digital humanities in your teaching or scholarship, but unsure of how to proceed? Looking for tips, advice, or resources for a digital project? Wondering how to apply for medieval-focused DH grants? Concerned about how to market yourself as both a medievalist and a digital humanities scholar?Or maybe you just wonder what a medievalist digital humanities scholar does in terms of scholarship?

For the next two weeks (October 1-14), we are collecting your questions about the intersection of medieval studies and digital humanities via Twitter (#AskaDHMedievalist, tweeted to @HortulusJournal) and our Facebook page. No question is too basic or too technical!

Your questions will be answered by two medievalist digital humanities scholars in the Fall 2015 issue of Hortulus Journal.

The roles of women and of gender in the Middle Ages have received particular attention in recent years with invigorating studies across multiple disciplines. Medieval women, such as Margery Kempe or Christina of Markyate, have been brought to the forefront in the minds of medieval scholars and questions of female agency and gender roles have been given new scholastic importance in medieval circles.

Keeping in mind the theme of the 2016 Congress this session seeks to turn the focus of gender to the specific topic of feasts and feasting. This session will examine how gender roles and gendered objects affected the preparation, celebration, ceremony, patronage, and perception of feasting in all strata of medieval society. The session follows the theme of our Fall, 2016 issue of Hortulus, ‘Gendered Spaces’, and we hope to be able to publish in that issue some of the papers delivered in this session. As our journal mission is to support the professionalization efforts of graduate students, the session is organized, presided over, and comprises papers given by current graduate students.

Welcome topics include, but are not limited to:

Roles of women and female religious orders at feast times.

Gendered objects and their uses in times of celebration or feasting.

Defining gender roles within the process of celebration.

Gendered spaces pertaining to either the secular dining hall or the physical religious environment at feast times.